Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many recorded instances or reports from official veterinarians there have been of birds entering the next stage of production while still showing signs of consciousness in slaughterhouses in England and Wales in each of the last five years.

The following table shows by reporting year the number of instances that official veterinarians have recorded enforcement action following an incident when stunning was considered to be ineffective in poultry slaughterhouses:

The business operator must implement systems to ensure stunning is efficient. There must be Standard Operating Procedures in place which specify the action to be taken when birds show signs of consciousness or sensibility after the stunning procedure. Instances of birds identified and dealt with by the Business Operator in accordance to their own procedures will not be recorded by the official veterinarian.